Automated compliance scoring system that analyzes network accessible data sources

ABSTRACT

An automated system that analyzes network accessible data sources to determine a score that measures compliance of an investment with a compliance policy. The compliance policy may specify for example ESG (Environment, Social, or Governance) requirements, or prohibitions against selling of certain products and services considered undesirable or unethical by certain investors. Compliance analysis may determine the amount of revenue or income received from prohibited sources, or it may search information for key words and phrases related to these sources. The system may “purify” noncompliant investments by bundling them with charitable contributions that offset the income from prohibited sources. Fund managers may publish and share compliance policy definitions, and may import these shared definitions and customize them for their specific fund requirements.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

One or more embodiments of the invention are related to the field ofdata analysis systems. More particularly, but not by way of limitation,one or more embodiments of the invention enable a system that analyzesnetwork accessible data sources to generate a compliance score forinvestments.

Description of the Related Art

Socially conscious investing attempts to understand a potentialinvestment's (i.e., instrument's) adherence to the investor's principlesof what constitutes “good” (typically as provided as documentedstandards by a fund manager or another intermediary). For example, someinvestors may define “good” investments as those that adhere to sound“ESG” (environmental, social, and governance) principles. “Good”environmental, social, and governance may require certain behaviors suchas adherence to given ISO standards or ensuring independent outsideboard members, and may forbid other behaviors such as building orselling nuclear weapons (among, of course, many other actions). Anothercategory of socially conscious investing is adherence to Shariah(Islamic) Law, which requires certain behaviors such as the giving ofalms and forbids other behaviors such as consumption of alcohol or thelending or borrowing of money for simple or compound interest.

Screening or rating of investments for compliance with variouscategories of socially conscious investing has traditionally requiredextensive manual review and analysis of individual investments and ofthe organizations associated with these investments. For example, ananalyst may conduct extensive interviews with the management of acompany to determine whether the company complies with a fund'spolicies. This process is very time consuming, and it must be repeatedfrequently as companies change their products and services, update theirbusiness models, and change ownership through mergers and acquisitions.This manual review and analysis process significantly increases theexpense and complexity of socially conscious investing. In addition,compliance assessments may be out of date or incomplete because of thedifficulty of manually tracking all the necessary data. There are noknown systems that provide an automated compliance scoring system thatgenerates compliance scores to indicate the extent to which a set ofinvestments complies with a specified compliance policy.

For at least the limitations described above there is a need for anautomated compliance scoring system that analyzes network accessibledata sources.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One or more embodiments described in the specification are related to anautomated compliance scoring system that analyzes network accessibledata sources. Embodiments of the system transform a list of investmentsinto compliance scores that indicate the extent to which the investmentscomply with a specified policy. The transformation may be based onanalysis of data sources that may be for example accessible over anetwork such as the Internet or a private network.

One or more embodiments of the system may include or access aninvestment compliance policy definition. This definition may describethe objectives for the investment or for a fund that may incorporatemultiple investments. The compliance policy definition may for exampleinclude a set of prohibited activities (such as doing business in NorthKorea, for example), or a set of required activities (such as includingoutside directors on the board of directors, for example). The systemmay include a compliance analyzer that calculates a compliance score fora list of investments, based on the compliance policy definition. Thecompliance analyzer may search one or more data sources, such as datasources accessible via a network, to locate information on theorganizations associated with the investments. It may then analyze thisinformation to obtain evidence of the extent to which each organizationperforms the prohibited activities or the required activities. Based onthis evidence, the compliance analyzer may transform the list ofinvestments into a corresponding set of compliance scores for eachinvestment.

Prohibited activities may include for example, without limitation, oneor more of selling of a prohibited product or service, doing business ina prohibited location or with a prohibited entity, polluting theenvironment, and borrowing or lending money for interest. Prohibitedproducts or services may include for example, without limitation, one ormore of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, weapons, and pornography. Requiredactivities may include for example, without limitation, one or more ofcompliance with regulations, compliance with industry standards,enforcement of nondiscriminatory hiring policies, and inclusion ofoutside directors in a governance structure.

For one or more embodiments that measure compliance with a policy thatprohibits or limits borrowing of money for interest, a compliance scoremay for example compare the amount of interest-bearing debt of anorganization to one or more thresholds. A threshold may be based forexample on a ratio of interest-bearing debt to one or more of theorganization's assets, the organization's liquid assets (such as cashand receivables), and the organization's market capitalization (measuredfor example at a point in time, or over a period time such as forexample a 12-month rolling average or a 36-month rolling average). Oneor more embodiments may have compliance policies that set maximum valuesfor any or all of these thresholds for interest-bearing debt.

Data sources used for compliance analysis may include for example,without limitation, one or more of organization financial reports,filings with regulatory agencies, news feeds, product literature, andorganization websites.

In one or more embodiments, analysis of the extent to which anorganization performs prohibited activities may include, for example,calculating (or estimating) the percentage of revenue or percentage ofincome earned by the organization from the prohibited activities.

In one or more embodiments, analysis of the extent to which anorganization performs prohibited or required activities may include, forexample, searching data sources for words and phrases associated withthe activities. These words and phrases may be included in a databasethat associates words and phrases with activities. In one or moreembodiments, the database may include or reference a database ofsynonyms. In one or more embodiments, the database may include industryclassification codes, such as for example SIC codes or NAICS codes.

In one or more embodiments, analysis of information may correlate theappearance of a word or phrase with the context in which it appears,such as for example a section or subsection title. In one or moreembodiments, the compliance analyzer may crawl links in documents or webpages to find and analyze related information.

One or more embodiments may transform a noncompliant investment or setof investments into a “purified,” compliant investment, for example bybundling one or more charitable contributions with the originalinvestment or investments to form a compound financial instrument. Forexample, the compound instrument may make a charitable contribution thatis equal to the amount of income generated by the original investment orinvestments from noncompliant sources such as prohibited products orservices.

One or more embodiments may incorporate a compliance policy editor toolor tools that allow a fund manager or other investor to create, import,edit, modify, save, export, or share a compliance policy definition.Compliance policy definitions may be shared via a compliance policydefinition database; thus, a fund manager may access and importcompliance policy definitions generated by other fund managers, and maythen customize them for the specific requirements of his or her fund.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the inventionwill be more apparent from the following more particular descriptionthereof, presented in conjunction with the following drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an architectural block diagram of an embodiment of anautomated compliance scoring system, illustrating an investmentcompliance policy definition, and a compliance analyzer that analyzesdata sources to score investments based on compliance with the policy.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment that analyzes the sources of revenueand income for an organization to determine compliance with a policythat prohibits selected products or services.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment that scans news reports for words andphrases that are indicative of prohibited products or services.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment that crawls links in data sources to locateother information that may indicate compliance with a policy.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment that generates a compliance score bycorrelating words and phrases with the context in which they appear; thecontext may be for example a section header of a document or a categoryfor financial data.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment that scores compliance with agovernance policy that requires independent directors.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment that transforms a noncompliantinvestment into a compliant investment by bundling a charitablecontribution with the noncompliant investment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a user interface that may be used by a fund managerto import compliance policies that are shared in a compliance policydatabase.

FIG. 9 illustrates a user interface that may be used to edit acompliance policy and to share it by publishing it to the compliancepolicy database.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An automated compliance scoring system that analyzes network accessibledata sources will now be described. In the following exemplarydescription, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea more thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. It willbe apparent, however, to an artisan of ordinary skill that the presentinvention may be practiced without incorporating all aspects of thespecific details described herein. In other instances, specificfeatures, quantities, or measurements well known to those of ordinaryskill in the art have not been described in detail so as not to obscurethe invention. Readers should note that although examples of theinvention are set forth herein, the claims, and the full scope of anyequivalents, are what define the metes and bounds of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows an architectural diagram of an automated compliance scoringsystem. The system may include an investment compliance policydefinition 110 that may define requirements for compliant investments.In general, in one or more embodiments the compliance policy definition110 may include any type or types of requirements that determine whetheran investment is compliant or the extent to which an investment iscompliant. Compliance policies may be determined for example by fundmanagers, investment managers, wealth managers, or other organizationsor persons who advise on investments or who make investments. Thesepolicies may be designed for example to screen potential investments forcharacteristics that may be considered desirable or essential by certaingroups of investors. Compliance may be either binary (an investment iscompliant or not) or a score or rating that indicates the degree towhich an investment is compliant. A score may be for example, withoutlimitation, a quantitative score (such as 80% out of 100% possible), ora categorical rating (such as AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, C, etc.)

Compliance may be based for example on one or more prohibited activitiesor conditions 111, on one more required activities or conditions 112, orboth. For example, without limitation, a compliance policy may specifyone or more prohibited products or services, such as for examplealcohol, tobacco, firearms, weapons, video games, or pornography; someinvestors may wish to avoid investing in organizations that providethese products or services because of moral, political, or religiousbeliefs. A compliance policy may specify for example that providing ofloans for interest is prohibited; this policy may be important forexample for selected Islamic investors since Shariah law typicallyprohibits fixed-income, interest-bearing bonds or similar instruments. Acompliance policy may prohibit activities such as polluting or otherenvironment damage. A compliance policy may prohibit operations incertain countries or territories, or business relations with specificcountries or governments, for example if these countries, territories orgovernments are believed to be oppressive regimes or sponsors ofterrorism. A compliance policy may prohibit bribery or other inducementsor rewards for business, including those that may be legal but may beviewed as questionable on ethical grounds. A compliance policy may alsorequire certain actions, behaviors, controls, or conditions. Forexample, without limitation, a compliance policy may require certainorganizational governance procedures and policies, such as including aspecified number or percentage of outside directors on a board ofdirectors. A compliance policy may require that an organization complywith certain regulations (such as OSHA regulations for example.) Acompliance policy may require that an organization meet or exceedcertain targets, for example for safety or for use of recyclablematerials. A compliance policy may require certain hiring or employmentactions, such as for example hiring or promoting a certain percentage ofspecified groups. The above examples of compliance policy prohibitionsand requirements are illustrative examples only; one or more embodimentsmay incorporate any desired conditions in compliance policies.

Using the compliance policy definition, a compliance analyzer 120analyzes one or more sources of information to generate a compliancerating for one or more investments 101. The investments 101 may includeany type or types of investment, including for example, withoutlimitation, equity, bonds, preferred stock, options, private placements,loans, real estate, collectibles, any type of asset, mutual funds,exchange traded funds, REITs, and government bonds. Associated with eachinvestment there may be one or more organizations, such as for examplethe company or entity that receives or manages the funds for theinvestment. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, investment 102 maybe an equity investment in organization 103. The organization may be anytype of entity, including for example, without limitation, a company, acorporation, a partnership, a sole proprietorship, a limited liabilitycompany, a bank, a fund, a venture capital fund, a nonprofitorganization, and a government. The compliance analyzer 120 may accessone or more data sources to find information about the organizations andthe investments 101. These data sources may be for example accessibleover a network or networks 130, which may include for example theInternet, private networks, local networks, or any combinations thereof.The data sources may in some embodiments include proprietary datasources that are available to the organization that uses the complianceanalyzer. Data sources may include for example, without limitation,company websites 131, news feeds 132, and filings 133 with regulatoryagencies such as for example the SEC. Any type of public or privateinformation source or database may be used as a data source for thecompliance analyzer.

The compliance analyzer 120 may perform a search 121 of the data sourcesto locate information related to the investments and organizations 101.It may then perform analysis 122 of this information to determine theextent to which each organization or investment complies with theinvestment compliance policy 110. Based on this analysis, the complianceanalyzer may perform transformation 123 that transforms the list ofinvestments 101 into a list of associated compliance scores 140. Thecompliance scores may be any qualitative or quantitative measure of thedegree to which an investment complies with the compliance policydefinition 110. Illustrative examples shown in FIG. 1 include a 0%compliance score 141 for an investment that is completely noncompliant,a 70% compliance score 142 for an investment that is largely but notentirely compliant, and a 100% compliance score 143 for an investmentthat is fully compliant with the compliance policy 110. Instead of or inaddition to percentage compliance scores, the compliance analyzer maycategorize investments by their compliance or degree of compliance, forexample by assigning categorical compliance scores such as Yes/No orAAA/AA/etc. In one or more embodiments, the system may providecapabilities for manual review and adjustment 150 of thesystem-generated compliance scores 140 or of any factor of factors thataffect these scores. For example, an operator may be able to review thesystem-generated scores and the detailed information that contributed tothese scores, and adjust the final scores if appropriate, or adjust anyof the factors that affect the score calculations. In one or moreembodiments, the compliance analyzer may generate a confidence ratingfor each compliance score, for example to alert an operator that asystem-generated compliance score has significant uncertainty and shouldtherefore be manually reviewed.

For one or more embodiments with compliance policies that prohibit salesof products or services in selected categories or sectors, thecompliance analyzer may calculate or estimate the amount of revenue orincome the investment generates from these prohibited products orservices. The fraction of the investment's total revenue or income fromnon-prohibited products or services may be used as the compliance scorefor that investment, or may contribute to a calculation of a compliancescore that includes other factors as well. One or more embodiments mayuse revenue, income, or both as the measure of compliance. One or moreembodiments may use one or more proxies for revenue or income, such asfor example the number of products, product lines, SKUs, stores,distributors, suppliers, or customers related to the prohibited productsor services.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example with a compliance policy definition thatprohibits products and services in 6 categories identified by table 201.These prohibited categories are identified in this example by segmentNAICS codes. One or more embodiments may use any type of segmentclassification system, including for example, without limitation, SICcodes, NAICS codes, ISIC codes, GICS codes, ICB codes, or any otherclassification system. The compliance analyzer 120 searches and analyzesdata sources including SEC filings 133 to determine how much revenue orincome an organization derives from these prohibited segments. Forexample, the compliance analyzer may scan a 10-K such as 10-K 202, andmay locate a section 203 in the 10-K that provides segment businessinformation for the organization. In this example, table 204 in section203 breaks down the company's revenue and income by industry segment.The compliance analyzer may match the description of the segment intable 204 with the table 201 of prohibited segments to determine whethera company-reported segment corresponds to any of the prohibitedsegments. In this example entries 205 in table 204 correspond tocategories 206 in the prohibited segments list 201. Because the companyreports revenue and income by segment, the compliance analyzer cancalculate the percentage 207 of income received from the prohibitedsegments 206. In one or more embodiments, this amount may be estimatedbased on other information in the 10-K or in other data sources. In oneor more embodiments, the compliance analyzer may base a compliance scoreon a revenue percentage instead of or in addition to an incomepercentage. The compliance analyzer determines the compliance score 142for this business as the percentage of income from compliant sources,excluding the segments in table 201.

In one or more embodiments, a compliance analyzer may obtain, analyze,or generate indicators of noncompliant activity in addition to orinstead of revenue or income by segment. These indicators may forexample be suggestive of noncompliant products or services, even if theydo not provide quantitative, structured information on sales or incomeby segment. FIG. 3 illustrates an example that analyzes news feeds 132for words and phrases that are related to or suggestive of prohibitedproducts or services. The system may include a database 301 of words andphrases related to prohibited (or required) activities. For example, inthe embodiment of FIG. 3, alcohol and gambling are prohibited productsand services. Database 301 contains a list 302 of words and phrasesrelated to alcohol, and a list 303 of words and phrases related togambling. The example shown provides simple lists of related words andphrases; in one or more embodiments, this data may be more structured;for example, a relevance weight may be assigned to each word or phrase,or a parsing context may be provided for each word or phrase. The newsfeeds illustrated are press releases from the organization that thecompliance analyzer is evaluating. In one or more embodiments, thecompliance analyzer may analyze text (or graphics) in any information,including news from any source or any other type of information relatedto the organization or investment. Press release 310 contains phrase 311that appears in list 303, and press release 312 contains word 313 thatappears in list 302. The compliance analyzer 120 reviews all pressreleases from this organization over the last 12 months, and determinesthe percentage 320 of these press releases that contain text matchingthe prohibited products and services (2 of 12, approximately 17%).Although this percentage may be used directly as a compliance score (forexample, by assigning a compliance score of 83% since approximately 83%of press releases do not mention prohibited products or services), inone or more embodiments the compliance analyzer may apply any desiredfunction to transform data on occurrences of words and phrases into acompliance score. FIG. 3 illustrates an example transformation 321 thatmaps a percentage of mentions of prohibited activities into a compliancescore. In this example, the curve 321 assigns a compliance score 322 of25% to the organization based on the occurrence percentage of 17%. Oneor more embodiments may use any function to transform occurrence datainto compliance scores.

One or more embodiments may search for information on an investment oran organization by crawling links to obtain related information. FIG. 4illustrates an example where compliance analyzer 120 initially analyzesa press release 401 obtained from a news feed service 132. This pressrelease does not contain any direct information on whether theorganization provides any prohibited products or services; however, itdoes mention a new product and it provides a link 402 for moreinformation. The compliance analyzer follows link 402 to web page 403.Link 404 then leads to page 405, and link 406 leads to page 407, whichidentifies the business segments of a supplier of the new product. Bycorrelating the industrial classification codes 408 and 409 of thesupplier with a list of prohibited segments, the compliance analyzerconcludes that the new product is in a prohibited category.

In one or more embodiments, analysis of words or phrases may considerthe context in which a word or phrase appears. FIG. 5 illustrates anexample that analyzes data to determine compliance with a policy 501that prohibits lending of money for interest. The compliance analyzersearches for occurrences of the term “interest” as an indicator ofwhether an investment violates policy 501. However, the weight assignedto this term depends on the context in which the term appears. Forexample, table 502 assigns various weights to the term “interest” basedon a context for an annual report; the context in this situation maycorrespond for example to sections or subsections of a document. Annualreport 510 is analyzed for occurrences of the term “interest”; eachoccurrence 512, 514, 515, 517, and 519 is weighted per the section 511,513, 513, 516, and 518 respectively in which it appears. In particular,the weight for the term “interest” 519 as an expense is 0.0, sincepaying interest is not a violation of policy 501; however, the weightfor the term “interest” 517 as revenue is high, because this is a strongindicator of violating policy 501. The compliance analyzer 120determines an aggregate weighted score 520 for the term “interest.” Inthis illustrative example, a transformation function 521 maps thisweighted score into a categorical compliance rating for the organizationto yield compliance rating 522 (“C”).

A compliance policy may include required actions or conditions, inaddition to or instead of prohibited actions or conditions. FIG. 6illustrates an example with a policy 601 that includes a requirement 602that addresses company governance, which requires that a majority of thedirectors on the board of directors be independent (non-officers). Acompliance analyzer may analyze data sources such as annual reports 610,press releases 611, and company websites 612 to obtain or create listsof directors and officers; it may then compare these lists to determinecompliance with policy 601. For example, list 621 of directors andofficers indicates a fraction 622 of independent directors, whichresults in a governance compliance rating 623 for this organization; incontrast, list 631 of directors and officers shows no independentdirectors 632, which results in a poorer governance compliance rating633. This example is illustrative; one or more embodiments may apply anyrules or heuristics to determine compliance with any governance policyor any other compliance policy.

Enforcement of a compliance policy may limit the number of investmentsavailable to potential investors. One or more embodiments may increasethe pool of available investments by “purifying” an investment (or agroup of investments), for example by bundling the investment with acharitable contribution that offsets noncompliant activities orconditions. FIG. 7 illustrates an example with compliance policy 701that has a prohibition 702 against selected products. The complianceanalyzer 120 determines that an investment 703 has a percentage 704 ofincome from the prohibited products. This investment 703 by itself istherefore not compliant, and may be unavailable to investors who requirecomplete compliance with policy 701. The system therefore includes aninvestment purifier 710 that transforms this noncompliant investment 703into a compliant investment. In this illustrative example, thepurification is performed by bundling a charitable contribution 711 withinvestment 703, to form a compound financial instrument 712. In thisexample, the amount of charitable contribution is set to offset theincome of the original investment 703 from the prohibited segment. Forexample, if investor 721 invests amount 722 into the compound investment712, and if earnings from investment 703 during a specified time periodare 723, the investment purifier may determine the amount 724 fromcompliant sources, and the amount 725 from noncompliant sources, and maygenerate, suggest, or record a charitable contribution 726 to offset theincome 725 from noncompliant sources. The net earnings 727 available toinvestor 721 may therefore be attributed to only the compliant sources724. One or more embodiments may bundle any number of investments withany number and type of contributions to transform noncompliant orpartially compliant investments into compliant (or more compliant)investments. The amounts of contributions may be based on any factor orfactors, including but not limited to the amount of income attributed tononcompliant sources. Contributions to offset noncompliant activitiesmay be made to any organization or entity, in any form includingfinancial contribution or contributions of goods, services, or credits.

One or more embodiments may include components that enable fund managersor other personnel to create, edit, customize, save, or share compliancepolicy definitions. FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment that provides asharing and import capability to allow a fund manager 800 to browsecompliance policy definitions that have been shared via a compliancepolicy database 802. For example, the database 802 may be accessible viathe Internet or via a private network. User interface screen 801provides a categorized listing of compliance policy definitions in thedatabase. In this illustrative example, the listing includes both ESG(Environmental, Social, and Governance) policy definitions 810, andShariah Law compliance policy definitions 820. Compliance policydefinitions in database 802 may be sorted, classified, filtered, anddisplayed in any desired manner. In the illustrative user interfacescreen 801, Shariah Law Compliance policies are subdivided into policies825 related to equity investments, and policies 821 related to bondinvestments. Bond policies 821 are further subdivided into policies 822that strictly prohibit all interest, and policies 823 that allow varioustypes of “Sukuk” bonds. Sukuk bonds provide purchasers with some type ofownership, as opposed to offering fixed interest in exchange for a loan;hence they are considered Shariah-compliant by some (but not all)Shariah scholars. Moreover, different Shariah scholars have differentinterpretations of Sukuk rules that make bonds compliant; hence policies823 include several individual interpretations 824 a, 824 b, and 824 cfrom different scholars. Fund manager 800 can select one or more policydefinitions and import them using import button 830. For example, inFIG. 8 compliance policy definition 812 is selected; this policydefinition may for example provide a broad prohibition against variousproducts and services that may be considered “harmful.”

In addition to or instead of an import screen, one or more embodimentsmay provide one or more user interface screen to allow a fund manager orother investor to create or edit one or more compliance policydefinitions. For example, a fund manager may import a shared compliancepolicy definition to use as a starting point, and then customize thisdefinition for the fund manager's portfolio. FIG. 9 shows anillustrative embodiment with an editing screen 900 used by fund manager800. The compliance policy definition editing screen may for example bedivided into multiple tabs or sections, including the tab 901 shown thatdefines prohibited products and services. This illustrative screenprovides a series of checkboxes for various products and services,allowing the fund manager to determine which specific products andservices should be prohibited for a particular fund or investment. Forexample, fund manager 800 has checked 910 to prohibit alcohol products,and has selected 911 to indicate that no sales whatsoever of alcoholproducts are permitted for compliant investments. The fund manager hasunchecked 920 to indicate that weapons sales are not prohibited for thispolicy. The fund manager has selected 930 to prohibit video game sales,but has indicated that a small amount 931 of video game related activityis acceptable. In addition to the list of prohibited products andservices, screen 900 provides a capability 941 to edit word and phraselists associated with the prohibited activities, and it provides aslider 940 to control the sensitivity of a detection algorithm forprohibited activities using these words and phrases. Changes to thecompliance policy definition may be saved using button 942, and theedited compliance policy definition may be shared by publishing viabutton 943 to the compliance policy database 802.

While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means ofspecific embodiments and applications thereof, numerous modificationsand variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An automated compliance scoring system thatanalyzes network accessible data sources comprising: an investmentcompliance policy definition that defines requirements for compliantinvestments comprising one or more of one or more prohibited activities;and, one or more required activities, wherein said investment compliancepolicy definition comprises a Shariah law compliance policy definition;a list of one or more investments, each investment of said one or moreinvestments associated with an organization; and, a compliance analyzercoupled to said Shariah law compliance policy definition, to said listof one or more investments, and to one or more data sources accessiblevia a computer network; wherein said compliance analyzer comprises acomputer that is configured to automatically search said one or moredata sources for information on each organization associated with eachinvestment of said one or more investments; analyze said information forevidence to determine an extent to which each organization complies withsaid Shariah law compliance policy definition, and performs one or moreof said one or more prohibited activities and said one or more requiredactivities; and, transform each investment of said list of one or moreinvestments into a compliance score that measures said extent to whichsaid organization complies with said Shariah law compliance policydefinition and performs one or more of said one or more prohibitedactivities and said one or more required activities to form a list ofcompliance scores; wherein said compliance analyzer is furtherconfigured to categorize said one or more investments by theircompliance scores, generate a confidence rating for each compliancescore, and when a compliance score from said list of compliance scorescomprises uncertainty, alert an operator that said compliance scorerequires a manual review, and an adjustment of said compliance score orone or more factors that affect said compliance score; a compliancepolicy editor tool comprising a user interface with sharing and importcapability, wherein said compliance policy editor tool is configured toaccept input from an investment fund manager, and, create or modify saidShariah law compliance policy definition based on said input; and, aninvestment compliance policy database coupled with said computer andsaid compliance policy editor tool; wherein said user interfacecomprises a categorized listing of compliance policy definitions in saidinvestment compliance policy database, wherein said categorized listingof compliance policy definitions comprises said Shariah law compliancepolicy definition subdivided into equity investments policies and bondinvestment policies, and wherein said bond investment policies aresubdivided into policies that strictly prohibit all interest andpolicies that allow various types of Sukuk bonds, and, one or more userinterface screens; wherein said compliance policy editor tool is furtherconfigured to allow said investment fund manager to browse saidcompliance policy definitions shared via said investment compliancepolicy database using said one or more user interface screens, import anexternal investment compliance policy from said investment compliancepolicy database using said one or more user interface screens, one ormore of create and edit said external investment compliance policy toform said Shariah law compliance policy definition using said one ormore user interface screens to customize said Shariah law compliancepolicy definition for specific fund requirements specific to saidinvestment fund manager, and, publish said Shariah law compliance policydefinition that is specific to said fund manager to said investmentcompliance policy database using said one or more user interfacescreens.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein said one or more prohibitedactivities comprise one or more of selling a prohibited product orservice; doing business in a prohibited location or with a prohibitedentity; and, polluting the environment.
 3. The system of claim 1 whereinsaid one or more required activities comprise one or more of compliancewith regulations; compliance with industry standards; enforcement ofnondiscriminatory hiring policies; and, inclusion of outside directorsin a governance structure.
 4. The system of claim 2 wherein saidprohibited product or service comprises one or more of alcohol, tobacco,firearms, weapons, and pornography.
 5. The system of claim 1 whereinsaid one or more prohibited activities comprise lending of money forinterest or borrowing of money for interest.
 6. The system of claim 5,wherein said compliance score comprises a comparison of an amount ofinterest-bearing debt of said organization to one or more thresholds. 7.The system of claim 6, wherein said one or more thresholds comprise oneor more of a fraction of total assets of said organization; a fractionof liquid assets of said organization, wherein said liquid assetscomprise cash and receivables; a fraction of a market capitalization ofsaid organization at a point in time; and, a fraction of an averagemarket capitalization of said organization over a period of time.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein said one or more data sources comprise one ormore of organization financial reports; filings with regulatoryagencies; news feeds; product literature; and, organization websites. 9.The system of claim 1 wherein said analyze said information for evidenceto determine the extent to which each organization performs said one ormore prohibited activities comprises calculate from said information apercentage of revenue or a percentage of income earned by saidorganization from said one or more prohibited activities.
 10. The systemof claim 1 further comprising a database that is coupled with saidcomputer and that associates each activity of said one or moreprohibited activities with a list of words or phrases indicative of saidactivity; wherein said analyze said information comprises search saidinformation for said words or phrases.
 11. The system of claim 10further comprising a database of synonyms for said words or phrases. 12.The system of claim 10 wherein said database comprises industryclassification codes.
 13. The system of claim 10 wherein said analyzesaid information further comprises correlate appearances of said wordsor phrases in said information with a context of said appearances orcrawl links that appear in said information and further analyze one ormore targets of said links or both said correlate and said crawl links.14. The system of claim 13 wherein said context comprises a section orsubsection title, wherein said compliance analyzer assigns a weight toeach of said words or phrases as an indicator of whether saidorganization complies with said investment compliance policy, whereineach of said weights is dependent on a section or subsection title inwhich said words or phrases appear, and wherein said compliance analyzerdetermines an aggregate weighted score from each of said weights foreach of said words or phrases into a categorical compliance rating forsaid organization to yield a compliance rating for said organization.15. The system of claim 1 further comprising an investment purifiercoupled to said list of one or more investments and to said complianceanalyzer and configured to transform at least one investment of saidlist of one or more investments into a compound investment that bundlesa charitable contribution with said at least one investment.
 16. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein an amount of said charitable contribution issubstantially equal to an amount of income earned by said at least oneinvestment from said one or more prohibited activities.
 17. The systemof claim 1 wherein said one or more user interface screens comprise animport button and an editing screen.
 18. The system of claim 17 whereinsaid editing screen comprises multiple tabs or sections and a series ofcheckboxes for a plurality of products and services to allow said fundmanager to determine and select which products and services of saidplurality of products and services should be prohibited for a particularinvestment of said list of one or more investments as said one or moreprohibited activities via said multiple tabs or sections and said seriesof checkboxes.
 19. The system of claim 18 wherein said editing screenfurther comprises a capability tool to edit words and phrases associatedwith products and services determined as prohibited for said particularinvestment as said one or more prohibited activities, a slider tocontrol sensitivity of a detection algorithm for said prohibitedproducts and services using said words and phrases, a save button tosave changes to the investment compliance policy definition, and, apublishing button to publish said investment compliance policydefinition to said investment compliance policy database.
 20. Anautomated compliance scoring system that analyzes network accessibledata sources comprising: an investment compliance policy definition thatdefines requirements for compliant investments comprising one or more ofone or more prohibited activities, comprising one or more of selling aprohibited product or service, wherein said prohibited product orservice comprises one or more of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, weapons,and pornography, doing business in a prohibited location or with aprohibited entity, polluting the environment, lending of money forinterest, and, borrowing of money for interest, and, one or morerequired activities, comprising one or more of compliance withregulations, compliance with industry standards, enforcement ofnondiscriminatory hiring policies, and, inclusion of outside directorsin a governance structure, wherein said investment compliance policydefinition comprises a Shariah law compliance policy definition; a listof one or more investments, each investment of said one or moreinvestments associated with an organization; and, a compliance analyzercoupled to said Shariah law compliance policy definition, to said listof one or more investments, and to one or more data sources accessiblevia a computer network; wherein said one or more data sources compriseone or more of organization financial reports; filings with regulatoryagencies; news feeds; product literature; and, organization websites;wherein said compliance analyzer comprises a computer that is configuredto automatically search said one or more data sources for information oneach organization associated with each investment of said one or moreinvestments; analyze said information for evidence to determine anextent to which each organization complies with said Shariah lawcompliance policy and performs said one or more of one or moreprohibited activities and said one or more required activities; and,transform each investment of said list of one or more investments into acompliance score that measures said extent to which said organizationcomplies with said Shariah law compliance policy definition and performsone or more of said one or more prohibited activities and said one ormore required activities to form a list of compliance scores; aninvestment purifier coupled to said list of one or more investments andto said compliance analyzer and configured to transform at least oneinvestment of said list of one or more investments into a compoundinvestment that bundles a charitable contribution with said at least oneinvestment, wherein said charitable contribution equals an amount ofincome earned by said at least one investment from said one or moreprohibited activities; a compliance policy editor tool comprising a userinterface with sharing and import capability, wherein said compliancepolicy editor tool is configured to accept input from an investment fundmanager, and, create or modify said Shariah law compliance policydefinition based on said input; and, an investment compliance policydatabase coupled with said computer and said compliance policy editortool; wherein said user interface comprises a categorized listing ofcompliance policy definitions in said investment compliance policydatabase, wherein said categorized listing of compliance policydefinitions comprises said Shariah law compliance policy definitionsubdivided into equity investments policies and bond investmentpolicies, and wherein said bond investment policies are subdivided intopolicies that strictly prohibit all interest and policies that allowvarious types of Sukuk bonds, and, one or more user interface screens;wherein said compliance policy editor tool is further configured toallow said investment fund manager to browse said compliance policydefinitions shared via said investment compliance policy database usingsaid one or more user interface screens, import an external investmentcompliance policy from said investment compliance policy database usingsaid one or more user interface screens, one or more of create and editsaid external investment compliance policy to form said Shariah lawcompliance policy definition using said one or more user interfacescreens to customize said Shariah law compliance policy definition forspecific fund requirements specific to said investment fund manager,and, publish said Shariah law compliance policy definition that isspecific to said fund manager to said investment compliance policydatabase using said one or more user interface screens.